TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Former State Intelligence Coordinating Board (BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang has said that Kuwaitd citizen Omar Al-Faruq, a terrorist suspect who was arrested in Bogor, West Java, on June 5, 2002 and handed over to the US three days later, is a CIA-recruited agent.
Al Faruq was assigned to infiltrate Islamic radical groups and recruit local agents within these groups.
“When Al Faruq finished his assignments, the CIA created a scenario that he had been arrested,” Manulang told Tempo News Room in Jakarta on Thursday afternoon (19/9).
Manulang made this analysis based on the pattern used by Al Faruq, that of having Kuwait citizenship but holding a Pakistani passport, entering Indonesia as a refugee and marrying an Indonesian woman.
This kind of operation is aimed at starting conflicts in Indonesia and creating the image that Indonesia is a land of terrorists.
“After the CIA obtained complete data on this matter, they then made Al-Faruq disappear. It’s common in intelligence world,” said Manulang.
Manulang said he considered several matters in the arrest of Al Faruq last July to be odd, such as the denial of National Police chief Gen. Da’i Bachtiar over the police’s involvement in Al Faruq’s arrest, and the lack of official documents in Al Faruq’s handing over to the US.
“In the handing over of a detainee to other country, there should be an announcement or deportation document. Al Faruq’s case indicated a lack of coordination between the Indonesian police and intelligence agencies,” said Manulang.
As for Al Faruq’s testimony in Time magazine that he had masterminded the plan to murder Indonesian President Megawati and several bombings in Indonesia, Manulang considered this as an attempt to making Islamic groups the scapegoats for all terrorism incidents.
“Anti-Islam intelligence agencies committed the bombings in Indonesia. They have been trained for this and they are very organized,” said Manulang.
Therefore, he added, it was useless to arrest the bombers.
“We must arrest the mastermind of the bombings in Indonesia,” stated Manulang.
According to Manulang, it’s possible that Al Faruq recruited radical people from Islamic groups for his plan.
In regards to the murder attempt on Megawati, Manulang did not consider this as a serious matter.
“Megawati does not need to be worried. She’s not the real target in this matter,” said Manulang.
Manulang requested the government immediately verify the CIA report on Al Faruq.
“Such a report could only be a dummy or false intelligence information that is aimed at misleading the public,” stated Manulang. (Sapto Pradityo-Tempo News Room)
